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Diablo III

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So is anyone still playing this on softcore and working their way through inferno? I did normal-hell with a friend, but he won't play inferno because he sucks. I sent an invite to everyone who posted before me in the multiplayer networking thread, but it seems like most people didn't reply, either because they're not playing anymore or because they declined my invite (?).

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So is anyone still playing this on softcore and working their way through inferno? I did normal-hell with a friend, but he won't play inferno because he sucks. I sent an invite to everyone who posted before me in the multiplayer networking thread, but it seems like most people didn't reply, either because they're not playing anymore or because they declined my invite (?).

I'm in Act 2 inferno in hardcore, and Act I inferno in softcore, but I very, VERY rarely play my softcore characters.

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Just finished Diablo 3, so I can finally inspect this thread.

The one thing I have to comment on is how incredibly weird the story in D3 is. It's almost confidently amateurish. It's a pastiche of Diablo 2, but takes such weird turns that it feels like it was written by someone who has ingested a lot of stories, but doesn't really know how to make one themselves.

From a top level, it's just strange that 2/3rds of the story focus on Leah, but then she's all but forgotten and the game ends with a melancholy speech by archangel Tyrael. I'm pretty sure this will be remedied to a certain extent in the inevitable expansion pack that will surely focus on hunting down Adria and rescuing/redeeming Leah's soul, but right now it feels decidedly off.

Okay, so I finally finished my first Normal playthrough and can comment on this. I *wholeheartedly* agree. The plotting in Diablo 2 was so much smaller in scale, but so more much effective than anything happening in Diablo 3 that it's truly confusing. Diablo 2 has an actual ending - it's a bit of a cliffhanger, and it's a downer, but it definitely resolves the fate of Marius and makes you feel like this game has actually gone somewhere. Frankly, the cliffhanger aspect even makes sense - it's a game designed to be played through over and over, so ending the game on a note that consists of "You won....BUT THE WORLD IS STILL EVIL!" fits.

Diablo 3 does the exact opposite. It never resolves any of the major threads raised. There are the aforementioned Leah/Adria issues. The "endings" to my companions' plots seemed to fizzle out. Even the ending is weird:

You kill Diablo and the game just stops, throws a happy cutscene and that's it?

It's just so tonally all over the place. Diablo 2 very much struck a consistent "dark, gothic" feel which was at least consistent. Parts of Diablo 3 feel like Diablo 2, and then other parts -- much of Acts 3 and 4 -- seem almost to be striving for a high fantasy, Lord of the Rings-esque thing. I don't even know!

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Talking to a friend, he's hitting ACt 2 Inferno. It seems that the latest patch is basically designed around making you use the RMAH to progress. The in-game gold AH doesn't have the gear that you will need to make a dent in those bad guys. I've cooled on it anyway, as I simply couldn't face ACt 1 for the (what feels like) the 9th time.

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Stap it you guys, I'm already out of this game. Nothing I read here is making it any more appealing. When is Heart of the Swarm coming out?

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I like how if I could travel back in time 1 year everyone I know was super hyped about Diablo 3, and now everyone I know is super hyped about the D2 ladder reset on the 14th.

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I honestly keep forgetting that diablo 3 A ) exists and B ) That I own it and played it.

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Yea, really. Aside from the mechanics, everything else was completely forgettable.

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D3 is easily the most forgettable modern blizzard game. However having said that I don't think the exection (aside from their auction house bullshit) was poor. I think the game actually looked cool and played well. I actually just think that D3 shows the age of the core concept or traditional click to kill dungeon crawlers more then anything else. 

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I honestly keep forgetting that diablo 3 A ) exists and B ) That I own it and played it.

Every so often I see a biggest gaming regret of 2012 thread and mentally add my D3 purchace to the list. I didn't like the bloody demo why did I fork out 60 quid:/

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The core concept is far from the only thing that makes Diablo 3 a pretty huge pile of crap. This is evidenced by the fact that Path of Exile uses the same core concept and is an awesome game.

Things that are awful about Diablo 3:

-The bosses who were so cool in D2 have been written like saturday morning cartoon villians for D3, constantly explaining their own evil schemes so that you can beat them.

-The RMAH is not only a crappy idea, it also manages to compromise the design of the game in a way that affects people who don't even use (or wish to use) the RMAH. (see next point)

-The loot drop rates have been nerfed to oblivion because Blizzard has a vested interest in making you buy stuff from the auction house.

-The randomly-generated abilities for blue mobs are wildly unbalanced, resulting in certain combinations of abilities causing huge difficulty spikes in random places.

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Every so often I see a biggest gaming regret of 2012 thread and mentally add my D3 purchace to the list. I didn't like the bloody demo why did I fork out 60 quid:/

 

I don't blame you. I found the beta to be pure cotton candy, but it was still a tough couple of weeks when everyone was buying it and the entire internet was crying, "Diablo, Diablo!" I was busy with some other game at the time, I can't recall, otherwise I would have fallen to the siren song as well.

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The core concept is far from the only thing that makes Diablo 3 a pretty huge pile of crap. This is evidenced by the fact that Path of Exile uses the same core concept and is an awesome game.

Things that are awful about Diablo 3:

-The bosses who were so cool in D2 have been written like saturday morning cartoon villians for D3, constantly explaining their own evil schemes so that you can beat them.

-The RMAH is not only a crappy idea, it also manages to compromise the design of the game in a way that affects people who don't even use (or wish to use) the RMAH. (see next point)

-The loot drop rates have been nerfed to oblivion because Blizzard has a vested interest in making you buy stuff from the auction house.

-The randomly-generated abilities for blue mobs are wildly unbalanced, resulting in certain combinations of abilities causing huge difficulty spikes in random places.

 

I agree with just about this entire post. Like many of you, I dropped it after about a month and moved on to something else. 

 

Part of me is interested in the PS3 version though - no RMAH and drops adjusted accordingly sounds like a huge improvement. However, that story is still there. /cringes

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So Blizzard made a little announcement yesterday that it seems everybody (me included) might have missed..!

 

 

The auction house is being phased out, with a final shutdown date of March 2014!

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Is there an interesting backstory to this? When I played, the real money auction house was a neat thing I checked sometimes to look at how much money people were crazy enough to expect/pay for cool swords. Is the reason they're shutting it down something other than that not enough people were using it?

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I think part of it was that the majority of the people hated the system, and most everyone saw the drawbacks. With the release of D3 for consoles, widely lauded as the superior game in no small reason due to its revamped loot system, it was only logical to update the PC version as well. The auction house broke the loot system.

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No interesting story, just: getting loot from drops is the main source of endorphins in these games, and already being decked out in great gear for a pittance from the AH removes that compulsion to play.

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No interesting story, just: getting loot from drops is the main source of endorphins in these games, and already being decked out in great gear for a pittance from the AH removes that compulsion to play.

 

It's certainly why I stopped playing.

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I feel like it also introduced a psychological effect much like f2p games where your achievement could feel cheapened when someone else can just buy the sweet loot you worked so hard to procure on your own.

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It's certainly why I stopped playing.

 

I stopped playing because the game overheats my computer and shuts the whole thing down.

 

But then, I really need to buy a decent computer.

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Non-story game mode. Loot portal dungeons & challenges. Ladders. No AH. Cute as heck Paladin girl. Drops tailored to your character more likely to drop. Elemental effects. More legendaries with different effects. Account bound paragon level. Clans. Transmogrification. Enchanter. Blizzard has done it again. Josh Mosqueira is revitalizing the Diablo franchise. Any one saying they won't be coming back for this, is basically just a malcontent that wouldn't be satisfied regardless of what the announcement said.

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I can't wait to see what direction they'll take the provocative story of Diablo 3 in!

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